Making MBTI Work For Sales Teams. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used assessment of psychological type and an enormously insightful tool when understood and applied well.

In our work with many sales organisations we find that whilst MBTI is used effectively for the personal understanding/awareness of team members [their natural style, way of working, strengths and likely weaknesses, reaction when under stress etc] and for good team working [examining how the differing types act when in team situations and in particular how they cooperate with others to achieve tasks], the value adding piece of the jigsaw which is missed is the application of MBTI thinking to customers and the subsequent flexing of selling style to better build rapport and customer relationships.

In this series of short papers we will consider each of the four MBTI scales –

Extraversion to Introversion

Sensing to Intuition

Thinking to Feeling

Judging to Perceiving

..and for each we will consider the following critical questions for sales –

How do we spot this characteristic with confidence

What selling style/techniques will a customer with this style type best respond to

How should we communicate to better ‘connect’ with a customer of this type

When applied well, the combination of a number of relatively small ‘flexes’ of style leads to a significantly faster build of rapport and trust with customers and has been shown to SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE SALES OUTCOMES. Training your sales team to apply MBTI will provide a significant and measureable ROI within months of completion.Let’s first consider the Extraversion to Introversion scale –
Before we begin one point must be stressed – extraversion and introversion are the most commonly misunderstood concepts within MBTI. Extraversion is NOT about being a loud, larger-then-life, dancing-on-the-tables character type and Introversion does not signify that an individual wishes to live a solitary existence on a remote Hebridean island!Extraverts are fundamentally people who take energy from social interaction – so at the end of a long hard day an extravert will recharge their batteries through socialising in some way. They will also enjoy large social groups – perhaps choosing to holiday with friends and/or extended family.

Introverts are not ‘shy’ – they are individuals who expend energy in social interaction. Introverts who need to recharge their batteries do so from within themselves – hence an introvert at the end of a long day is likely to seek out peace and quiet to reflect. Introverts are likely to find large social groups [over extended periods of time] exhausting and hence are likely to prefer holidaying with immediate family only.

So…to our three key questions

Spotting the customers preferred type or style –

Below outlines things to look for when trying to spot extraverts and introverts –

Extraverts – look for:

Enjoys team sports – football, rugby

Seeks out larger social groups – lunch at a table for 6+

Happy to be the centre of attention – often the focus of conversation

Speaks quickly and with enthusiasm about passions

Likely to share personal details early in the relationship

Shorter attention span – need a high energy approach or can become bored

Expressive body language – fills the space Seeks out opinions of many others

Physical – comfortable with others inside their personal space

Introverts – look for:

Enjoys individual sports – squash,golf

More comfortable in smaller social groups – lunch for 2-4 will be more comfortable

Prefers a more supportive role and not to be the group focus

Communicates in a quieter more reflective manner

Will share limited personal information until trust has been established

Happy with and even crave the detail behind proposals

Controlled body language – smaller space

Uses personal reflection

Likes personal space to be respected

The above list is by no means exhaustive – look for other ‘clues’ in speech, body language and social preferences to help you.

A word of caution – look for congruence in customer communications – sales people need to find several clues to type before deciding on their flexing.
In our MBTI training we simulate both the spotting of types in ‘real-world’ situations and the flexing of delivery to better connect with customers.
In the next article we will consider the Myers Briggs Sensing to Intuition scale and how knowledge of your customers type can allow flexing of selling style.

Read more about:

Mark is a co-founder and Director of Customer Attuned Ltd. He is currently studying for his Doctorate at Southampton University, focused on Trust as a dynamic within business to business customer relationships.

His is an expert in B2B Customer Experience and Customer Management. This includes CM strategy development; execution of improvement plans (incl. organisational modelling for customer management); programme design; and partnership & alliance development.